About Iron Realms Entertainment

Iron Realms Entertainment is the world’s leading publisher and developer of MUDs. IRE was founded in 1995 by its CEO and founder, Matt Mihály, with the goal of producing high-quality MUDs (or text-based MMOs if you prefer) using a business model he pioneered - virtual goods sales.

The Iron Realms Team

CEO: Matt Mihály

A veteran of MUDs going back to the early 90s, Matt founded Iron Realms in 1995 to build best-in-class MUDs, personally developing much of Achaea - its first MUD - where he pioneered the modern free-to-play w/ virtual goods (often called microtransactions) business model. Since then, he's overseen the release of four other Iron Realms games, led a spin-off company (Sparkplay Media) that built in-browser tech for streaming MMOs (later sold to Turner Entertainment), and developed the world, lore, and some of the major game systems in Starmourn. Matt has a degree in political science from Cornell, and in his spare time likes outdoor activities, photography, rescue dogs, travel, reading and, of course, games of all sorts. Email: matt (-at-) ironrealms (-dot-) com

President: Jeremy Saunders

Jeremy's association with Iron Realms started as a player of the text adventure game Achaea before serving as a volunteer. He was eventually chosen to launch Iron Realms's third MUD - Imperian - as its Producer and served as Executive Producer for Iron Realms before moving into his current role as President. Prior to working for IRE, Jeremy was an entrepreneur in the martial arts industry, and occasionally fought professionally in UFC-style bouts. Email: jeremy (-at-) ironrealms (-dot-) com

Achaea

Producer: Charlie Russell

Gaining notoriety for being one of Achaea's premier combatants, Charlie took the next step and began working for Achaea as a programmer in 2013. He puts his vast combat knowledge and his BA in Computer Science from Essex University to good use expanding and improving all aspects of Iron Realms flagship game. Email: makarios (-at-) achaea (-dot-) com

Producer: Nicola Newton

Nicola started out as a player in Achaea in 2009, a total newbie to gaming and MUDs in general. She soon threw herself into all aspects of the game including writing, roleplay, combat, and also helped out for some years as one of the Achaea's Guides. In 2014 she joined the team as a volunteer and was quickly diving into events and lore creation, it wasn't too long before she became an Assistant Producer. In May of 2016, Nicola and Charlie Russell combined their complementary talents and stepped up as a team to take on the roles of Co-Producers for Achaea. Email: nicola (-at-) achaea (-dot-) com

Building Lead: Sam Kendall

With over a decade of MUD experience under his belt as a player, content creator, and administrator, Sam Kendall came to Iron Realms in February 2017 and operates out of the UK. Acting as Achaea's Head Builder, Sam delights in the development of expansive new landscapes, mind-boggling puzzles, and fiendishly challenging denizens, ensuring that Achaea's immense and vibrant world grows ever more engaging with each new addition to the map! Email: ictinus (-at-) achaea (-dot-) com

Aetolia

Producer: Adam Womack

A player of all IRE games for many years, Adam helped to start Imperian and was even involved in the event that started Aetolia. After a decade of working in oil and dealing with projects large and small, 2017's downturn gave an opportunity to escape and make a hobby of some 20ish years into a job. He brings an engineering project mindset to Aetolia's planning as Producer and has a degree in Chemical Engineering from UT Austin, which he swears is applicable and useful in unexpected ways. Contact: Tiur (-at-) Aetolia (-dot-) com

Assistant Producer: Michael Duncan

Michael's first adventure in Aetolia began in early 2003. After years of battling his fellow players and causing a great deal of havoc, he transitioned to a volunteer role in 2008, eventually becoming the Assistant Producer of Aetolia. In late 2012, he assumed the role of Producer. Michael is from New Zealand, and has studied computer science at the University of Otago. Email: razmael (-at-) aetolia (-dot-) com

Assistant Producer: Luke Moore

Hailing from Western Australia, Luke began his journey with Aetolia back in 2003 as fledgling player interested in PvP. After experiencing much of what was on offer, he transtitioned into a volunteer role in 2009 as a supporting programmer and designer for the game, and in 2015 became an official member of the Aetolian staff. Luke is a certified IT administrator and a self-taught programmer of various languages. Email: keroc (-at-) aetolia (-dot-) com

Imperian

Producer: Paul Saindon

Paul has been involved with Iron Realms games since the early 2000s, and first started volunteering with Aetolia in 2003 as a coder. After a few years with Aetolia he almost jumped to Lusternia but instead switched to coding for Tears of Polaris. When that didn’t pan out, he took a few years off before joining the Imperian team where he currently lurks in the background.

Producer: Tomas Tillery

Tomas came to MUDs later in their gaming career, when they were introduced to Imperian in 2006 while studying for their BS in Computer Science. After years playing the game (and one false start volunteering for Imperian in 2010 that didn't last very long), their second try took off, and they have served as a coder for Imperian since late 2013. In May of 2017, they were officially promoted to Assistant Producer, and has since stepped up to be Producer along side Paul. Outside of gaming they have a career in Cyber Security, two adorable dogs, and not nearly enough free time.

Producer: Louis Philippe Handfield

Louis' first MUD experience began in 2009 with Aetolia, where in 2017, he became a volunteer coder. In real life, he is a system administrator and a certified network administrator. Although he studied computer science, his interest in programming began many years earlier. Originally from Quebec, Canada, he now lives in Arizona. Contact skuf (-at-) imperian (-dot-) com

Lusternia

Producer: Mike Manning

Mike started out playing Lusternia in 2008 and quickly learned and adapted to become one of the top combatants in the Basin. He joined the team as a volunteer coder and got involved in various reworks and coding projects before stepping up in 2018 as an Asst Producer and taking over in Oct 2019 as Co-producer of Lusternia. Art credit to Gurashi of Lusternia.

Producer: Rebecca Milton

Rebecca joined Lusternia as a player in 2007 whilst studying for a BA in English Language and Literature. Lusternia has been a significant feature in her life ever since, eventually culminating in her progression to volunteer in 2014. In 2019 she was appointed as Assistant Producer, and was then promoted to Producer in early 2020. Outside of Lusternia she is found studying, pursuing a postgraduate diploma in Philosophy and an MA in Creative Writing before progressing to a PhD in the medical humanities. She lives in the United Kingdom with her husband and feline overlord. The wonderful artwork of her is by Gurashi, a talented Lusternia player.

Starmourn

Producer: Ioan Sima

Ioan started playing Achaea in 2008 by accident while looking for a text adventure to pass boring hours at work. A couple of years later, again by accident, he was dragged into Midkemia Online where he would stay until the end of its days, first as a player then as a volunteer. After that one closed down, Ioan didn't find a proper MUD home until Starmourn came around, when he joined the team as its Producer. He is from Romania and has worked as a game programmer and designer before Iron Realms, both as an employee and as a freelancer, and tries to bring that knowledge to Starmourn. You can always reach him at ioan (-at-) ironrealms (-dot-) com.

Assistant Producer: Laura Lindborg

A veteran mud player and lifelong gamer, Laura Lindborg stumbled upon a job application for Iron Realms Entertainment in 2016, and four years later still thinks it's the best job she's ever had. She spent two years developing Starmourn from a fledgling world into what it is today, writing and scripting just about everything - there isn't a single facet of the game that doesn't have her creative touch on it somehow. Starmourn opened to the public in 2018, and she now includes customer service, community management, and game event planning in her duties. Laura lives in Montreal and sees the world through rose-colored glasses. She can be reached by emailing eukelade [at] starmourn [dot] com.

Assistant Producer: Tomas Mecir

Living in Slovakia, Europe, Tomas has a MD in Computer Science. Having played the Iron Realms text games for several years, he became a volunteer programmer for the Imperian game in 2009, and was hired in 2010 to work on various existing and new projects for Iron Realms. Email: tomas (-at-) ironrealms (-dot-) com

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Sign up for the Iron Realms Newsletter.

Get the top news from all the IRE worlds.

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

disable

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.